Pearl has always had trouble understanding humans.

Though Rose was infatuated with them, and had even come to love a few, the gem just couldn't understand them. She had never been a fan of humans. In fact, for a short while she despised them.

Was it because they were inferior? No. It was because of her beloved Rose Quartz. Many of the members of the species had tried to take Rose away from Pearl because of her beauty. However Rose was simply blinded by her love for humans, and in turn she failed to notice this.

This lead the gem to falling in love, and having her heart broken more times than Pearl could count. Despite this, Pearl eventually grew to tolerate the insignificant creatures. She never really liked them though. Well, at least until Greg Universe came into the picture. Pearl despised Greg more than any of Rose's past lovers, because his feelings were genuine. He actually was in love with her, and she with him. This thought scared her. Was a human actually going to take away the pink gem?

Well that's exactly what happened. One day out of the blue, the leader of the Crystal Gems told her companions she was expecting. Pearl didn't know what to think of this at first. Sure, it was bad, but it wasn't game changing, right?

Wrong.

Rose soon told them that having the baby would require her giving up her physical form to form half of him. Pearl now knew how to react to the news. She had a complete meltdown in her room. She would never do this in front of Rose, of course. Knowing her, she would feel bad. Pearl wouldn't make Rose feel bad for her actions. Ever.

Eventually the day came, and after a tearful farewell, the baby boy was born. Pearl was prepared to hate the child with everything she had. However when the time came, she couldn't.

The gem didn't know why. She loved the baby, Steven, with as much passion as she loved her former leader. He even led Pearl to begin to like humans more. For a while, Greg had to raise the Steven in his van due to the requirement that a house be built for him. This was, to say the least, unnerving. Once a day, or every other day, one of the gems would check on them.

Finally the day came, and the youngest member of the Crystal Gems came to live with them. It would still be a long while before he would go on missions though. As time passed on, Steven grew more and more adept to using his powers. He also learned more about gems and gem culture.

During this time, the boy met a young girl. A girl named Connie Maheswaren. Pearl could figure out why, but she liked this girl. There were strange moments, like with Steven's "funky flow" and with Stevonnie, but the human was generally accepted by all the gems.

Pearl grew to like the girl more and more over time, but she never figured out why until Connie wanted to take up sword fighting. At first she was uncertain, with what happened during Steven's training session. But when Pearl heard her reason to fight, she immediately accepted.

Connie was an expert at sword fighting when Steven stepped in to stop her training. The boy told Pearl that she didn't want Connie hurt, and it was at that moment that she finally realized why she like Steven's human friend. She saw herself in Connie.

The girl wanted to fight for Steven even though she was weak, just as Pearl did for Rose. When she saw Steven upset about the ordeal, she finally understood why Rose cried all those times Pearl fell in battle. She was distraught that someone she cared about was sacrificing the self for her sake.

This made Pearl both happy and sad. She was happy because the one she loved cared so deeply about her. But she was sad because she had caused Rose sadness. As she sat on the ledge with Steven and Connie after the fight, she thought about just how much she had changed after Steven was born.

She had grown a bit more frantic, sure. But that was just because she knew how fragile humans were. Pearl had seen countless humans die over the span of her time on Earth. She didn't know what would happen if the child was seriously injured. The thought really terrified her.

But the thing she never thought would happen, had happened. Pearl realized she liked humans. Until about a decade ago, she had never taken the time to get to know them. To learn about their culture. To see things as they did. She didn't regret it either.

In fact, she relished in the fact that she viewed Earth as Rose did now. Something she never would have achieved if not for the half-gem sitting next to her. Pearl hugged him closer to her, causing the boy to look at her confused. She just smiled, and began to spout on about how she could train them both. This caused the children to grin.

Pearl chatted away excitedly, and silently thanked Steven for helping her. Even if he didn't realize he did.

A/N: It's done! Oh my gosh I've wanted to do a one-shot for so long. And I love Steven Universe so much. Expecially Pearl and Steven. I decide to go ahead and do it now since I'm starting as a freshman in highschool on Monday. I don't know how much time that will take up, and since I already have another story in progress I wasn't sure if I'd have the time to write anything else. I'm sort of disappointed in myself about the ending though. I wasn't sure how to end it so it kind of sucks. Sorry 'bout that. Also sorry it's kind of short. I try to make them long, really. I can't wait for Steven Universe on the 6th! Also GF on the 3rd! So much to look forward to. I'm going to end this here, so thanks for reading!